Here we are in Amritsar having just finished running our Textile Tour which was brilliant - we and our guests had a great time. We started off with 12 gags and ended up with 18!! Some of them were shopaholics and everywhere we stopped they were into the shops in a trice. So we've been to Calcutta, Darjeeling, Delhi, Agra and Jaipur looking at textiles, crafts, fabrics, block printing, silk screen printing, carpet making, inlaid marble work, jewellery - you name it, we did it.

By the end of the tour they were VERY good at bargaining - and some excellent deals were done - beating the traders into submission (still they WERE hiking up the prices as they saw us coming - pay about a third of what they quote and you've got it right.)

We've been to see the Golden Temple here - it is a beautiful Sikh temple and the centre of Sikhism, so very busy with a constant stream of pilgrims and visitors. There is a kitchen there which is staffed by volunteers and they provide free meals to 50,000 people a DAY! It is an amazing sight to see hordes of ladies preparing huge pots of cauliflower, garlic etc.

Amritsar itself is a scruffy, dirty town with poor roads and infrastructure. Tomorrow we're going to Wagah where they hold a border ceremony rather like the changing of the guards, with the soldiers strutting about like peacocks - it's supposed to be very flamboyant.

We are staying in a hotel which opens today - we're their first customers. Having said that, it isn't actually finished (in true Indian style!) - there are lots of decorators, gardeners, electricians, plumbers all working away on it. But the room is lovely and the breakfast very good so we can't complain.

Love to all, Sarah and Clive